The great stewed classic of Parisian bistros, where beef chuck, gently braised with a calf's foot, becomes so tender it shreds with a spoon, coated in a glossy amber sauce and meltingly soft carrots.
Ingredients
- 1.4 kg boneless Charolais beef chuck for braising
- 1 piece split and blanched calf's foot
- 180 g thick slice of lightly salted pork belly
- 1.2 kg Landes sand carrot
- 3 pieces farm-fresh yellow onion
- 4 cloves Lautrec pink garlic clove
- 1 tbsp no-salt-added double concentrated tomato paste
- 2 tbsp high-oleic sunflower cooking oil
- 50 cl dry Bourgogne Aligoté white wine
- 500 ml artisanal brown beef broth
- 1 piece fresh tied bouquet garni (thyme, bay leaf, flat-leaf parsley)
- 1 tsp fine Guerande salt
- to taste whole Madagascar black peppercorns in a mill
Method
- Cut the beef chuck into large, even pieces of about five centimeters. Cut the lightly salted pork belly into large lardons. Peel the onions and slice them into medium strips.
- In a large cast iron Dutch oven over medium heat, pour in the high-oleic sunflower oil. Add the lardons and let them brown gently until they are deeply golden and crispy with clear rendered fat. Remove them with a slotted spoon, reserving the fat in the Dutch oven.
- Turn the heat up to high under the Dutch oven. Add the beef chuck pieces without crowding the pan to maintain intense heat. Sear them on each side for four to five minutes without piercing them, until a deeply caramelized brown crust forms. Remove the meat and add it to the lardons.
- Lower the heat to low, add the sliced onions with a pinch of fine salt to the Dutch oven, then gently sweat them, scraping the bottom with a wooden spatula to deglaze all the browned bits. Once they become translucent, add the double concentrated tomato paste and the crushed garlic cloves, then cook for two minutes, stirring to toast the tomato paste.
- Deglaze by pouring the dry white wine into the Dutch oven. Bring to a vigorous boil and let reduce by half for about five minutes, until the sharp smell of alcohol disappears, leaving a syrupy base.
- Return the seared beef chuck, browned lardons and the split calf's foot half to the Dutch oven. Pour in enough hot brown beef broth to cover. Tuck the bouquet garni into the center. Bring to a very gentle simmer, carefully skim off the gray foam from the surface using a small ladle, then add the fine salt and a few grinds of black pepper.
- Cover the Dutch oven tightly, lower the flame to the minimum to maintain a barely perceptible simmer, or slide the Dutch oven into an oven preheated to one hundred forty degrees. Let braise very gently for one and a half hours without stirring.
- Meanwhile, peel the carrots and cut them on a bias into large, even pieces of about three centimeters. After one and a half hours of cooking, open the Dutch oven, gently fold the carrots into the cooking juices, immediately cover again and continue the very gentle simmer for an additional one and a half hours.
- Check the texture: the tip of a knife should slide into the meat as if into a pat of butter, and the carrots should be tender without falling apart. Remove the calf's foot to a cutting board, discard the bones, chop its gelatinous meat into small dice and fold them back into the dish. Remove the bouquet garni.
- Check the consistency of the sauce: if it lacks body, carefully remove the meat and carrots with a slotted spoon to keep them warm, then reduce the juices for a few minutes over high heat until glossy and thick enough to coat the back of a spoon. Return the meat and vegetables to coat them in the sauce, adjust the seasoning and serve steaming hot directly in the Dutch oven.
Nutrition
Per serving
- Energy
- 595.5 kcal
- Protein
- 59.04 g
- Carbohydrate
- 23.25 g
- Fat
- 23.55 g
- Fibre
- 5.84 g
- Calcium
- 10.85 mg
- Iron
- 0.52 mg
- Magnesium
- 12.37 mg
